Financial Market Turmoil? Don’t Panic

With one of the largest investment bank declaring bankruptcy; the largest insurer needing a federal bail out; and the largest thrift in the country putting itself on the auction block — if this isn’t an appropriate time to reference a relatively obscure sci-fi work, then I don’t know what is.

More crappy jokes on a crappy blog aside, seeing hundreds of billions of capital wiped out within a day or two is definitely no fun.

As it is now, it’s easy for the rest of us to make irrational decisions from fear and anxiety. But for most of us average Joe, now’s certainly not the time to make panic driven decisions. Yes, it would have been nice to reallocate your retirement and investment accounts a week ago — or hell, earlier this year — but we can’t always make investing decisions after the fact.

The list of current to-do’s can vary depending on your situation, but if you’re concern, it doesn’t hurt to double check your FDIC and SIPC coverage limits on your various types of financial accounts.

Since I’m too much of a wuss (and a moron) to give out further advice, for more resources, check out links to other personal finance bloggers on these matters:

• What you can do about today’s economy – Ramit from I Will Teach You To Be Rich gives a quick 3 minute video on what you can do, with some cliff notes for those busy bees.
• Want To Bail On Your Stocks? Answer 2 Questions First – Jonathan from MyMoneyBlog gives us a timely reminder on selling during troubled times.
• Worried About Your Saving Accounts in Problem Banks? – SVB from The Digerati Life shows some food for thoughts if you have accounts at problem banks.
• FDIC Insurance Coverage Limits – Jim from Blueprint for Financial Prosperity goes over FDIC coverage limits.